Fans of Michigan will take some comfort from the fact that their coach Jim Harbaugh will officially return to the sideline after serving his three-game suspension.
Harbaugh’s absence from the sidelines hasn’t been overly felt, as his team have cruised to a 3-0 start with comfortable wins coming against East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green.
Currently ranked two in the nation, many believe the Wolverines have a serious chance of going one stage further than their tame exit to TCU in the first round of the College Playoffs last season.
Harbaugh returns to the field with his side facing off against Rutgers in another game that many betting sites such as gambleonlinemichigan.com are expecting them to win heavily. With plenty of winnable games to come, Harbaugh will hope to keep his team’s unbeaten record intact before they face off against Penn State and Ohio State later in the season.
Is this the end of Jim Harbaugh’s suspension?
After serving his three-game ban, the expectation is that Harbaugh won’t face any further punishment this season. His three-game ban was imposed by his bosses at Michigan, with the hope it would help reduce the severity of any ban that might come his way upon the completion of the NCAA investigation that is still ongoing against him.
Harbaugh found himself in hot water after it was revealed that he had potentially committed various recruitment violations during the imposed COVID-19 dead period and was then further accused of misleading NCAA investigators.
The NCAA investigation is set to rumble on and may not be finalized until 2024. There is the threat of further suspension, however the severity of any new bans isn’t likely to be revealed until the start of next season.
What will Harbaugh be keen on improving?
Whilst it’s difficult to poke too many holes in a team that is unbeaten, the Wolverines victory over Bowling Green wasn’t flawless, and Harbaugh will want to see plenty of improvement.
One of the main areas of improvement that Harbaugh and Wolverines fans will wish to see is better quarterback play from J.J McCarthy.
McCarthy is one of the most exciting players in college football and has already wowed fans all over the country with his undisputed arm talent.
An old-fashioned gun slinger, McCarthy threw a trio of ugly interceptions in his last outing which kept a vastly inferior Bowling Green team in the game for far too long. Whilst McCarthy and the Wolverines were able to overcome the turnovers, Harbaugh will know that a repeat of that showing won’t be good enough to win a National Championship.
What is Harbaugh’s future?
Despite his constant insistence that he is happy coaching at Michigan, the NFL rumors refuse to disappear. Although the new NFL season is in its infancy, he has already been linked with various NFL jobs and is often a wanted man.
Harbaugh’s exploits with the San Francisco 49ers are still fresh in the memory of many of the NFL’s top GM’s and owners. A determined, characteristic and vocal leader, Harbaugh will continue to be an attractive Head Coach option due to the way that he has efficiently run the Wolverines program and helped turn them into perennial challengers.
Harbaugh will hope that any offseason discussions will take place after he has guided the Wolverines to their first National Championship since 1997.